never existed. In that sense, perhaps, it 
might be said he discovered she was not 
Morgan. No man acquainted with the 
Morgan’s can behold his inimitable, grand 
and beautiful head and neck, without dis¬ 
covering his descent by his dam from the 
high headed Sherman’s branch of the Mor¬ 
gan horses. 
Mr. Marks regrets that I attribute inter¬ 
ested motives to him. I don’t know how 
it could be otherwise, when after in part 
owning a horse and advertising him to the 
public in many of the agricultural journals 
as from a pure Morgan dam, he never 
finds out to the contrary until after he has 
parted with him: judging from this we 
may expect him to find out the same as to 
bis present horse after he has sold him. It 
seems the gentleman who found it out for 
him very skillfully applied an antidote by 
selling him one that was pure! 
But Mr. Marks has suffered some, and 
has not yet recovered from the injury he 
has received by the amount of pay required 
for the numerous puffs blown for Gen. Gif¬ 
ford when he was part owner — at least so 
I infer, and so I suppose he wishes the 
public to infer. For if he was not puffed, 
he was very favorably spoken of in more 
agricultural journals than one, and if Mr. 
Marks speaks from experience in regard to 
the pay received for these complimentary 
notices of Gen. Gifford, it should afford him 
a caution not to complain if he parted with 
his interest in the horse before he reaped 
the benefit of the pay expended for puffing 
him. Was the Agricultural Society of 
Onondaga Co. paid for awarding him a pre¬ 
mium for 10 best colts?—the State Agri¬ 
cultural Society for awarding the first pre¬ 
mium to one of his yearling colts ?—or the 
Albany Cultivator for saying he was “a 
horse of great substance, spirit and action ?” 
(See Cultivator for 1847, p. 258.) Verily, 
Mr. Marks’ purse must have suffered some, 
if all the encomiums bestowed on the Gen¬ 
eral were “ graduated by the amount of 
pay received!” 
If that is his experience with the Gen¬ 
eral, I suppose he will suffer some yet in 
order to crack his present horse into notice. 
But if, after selling him, he should not be 
able to disabuse the public mind as to his 
qualifications, he must not be surprised; for 
most people see and judge for themselves, 
and to that test Gen. Gifford has always 
been submitted, I believe, since he came to 
this State. 
Mr. Marks thinks I should have been 
contented with what he said of the Gener¬ 
al. If I had supposed he knew more about 
him than Mr. Mason — who he justly says 
negotiated his purchase, and who was final¬ 
ly the sole owner—or than Judge Bi.odget 
or even myself, and particularly if Mr. 
Marks has no interest now not to remem¬ 
ber things in the most favorable light for the 
General — I might have been contented 
with what he said. , Resp.’y yours, 
C. W. Ingersoll. 
Lodi, Seneca Co., June, 1851. 
Remarks. —The above was received some weeks 
ago, during our absence, and since been necessa¬ 
rily omitted until the present week. The discuss¬ 
ion is becoming of so personal a nature, that we 
presume few readers will be interested or benefit¬ 
ed by its continuance,—and as each party has 
fired an equal number of shots, we think both can 
safelv retire from the field, and save their ammu¬ 
nition.— Ed. 
CORN COB MEAL 
We republished from the Germantown 
Telegraph a few weeks since, an article on 
this subject, requesting, in an editorial pre¬ 
fix, farther information on the matter from 
any of our correspondents who had made 
use of the article. The following is from 
one of them.— [Eds. Rural. 
Since the time of which W., (the cor¬ 
respondent of the Telegraph,) speaks, there 
has been great improvement in the manu¬ 
facture of breadstuff's, and also in that of 
cob-meal. At that period it was ground 
quite coarse, so that the cob was hard to di¬ 
gest, and consequently unhealthy as an ar¬ 
ticle of food. It is now ascertained that 
softening the cob by steaming or by grind¬ 
ing fine, will remove this objection. And 
by chemical analysis it is proved that 30 lbs. 
of clear cob meal contain as much nutri¬ 
ment as 30 lbs. of oats. 
For a number of years I have been in 
the habit of feeding corn cob meal to cat¬ 
tle and horses. I have found no difficulty 
iu keeping my team in good condition, or 
in making beef as readily as by any feed 
whatever. I have ground my own feed, 
having been bred a miller, and would say in 
conclusion, that if farmers would be willing 
to pay for grinding this meal as fine as that 
for family use, my word for it no healthier or 
cheaper feed could be employed by farmers. 
Munnsville, Madison Co., N. Y. 
J. II. P 
THE WIRE WORM. 
Messrs. Editors: —The wire worm is 
very troublesome to many farmers in West¬ 
ern New York. The best way to get rid 
of them that has come under my observa¬ 
tion, is the following:—Plow your ground, 
if you like, in the fall or at any time when 
you will best succeed in destroying all 
grasses and herbage, and then sow buck¬ 
wheat, (by the way not a very unprofitable 
crop for a farmer to raise) which is a kind 
of article the worms do not relish for food, 
and so completely occupies the ground that 
nothing else can grow for the worms to feed 
upon. This, together with summer-fallow¬ 
ing the next season and plowing or cultiva¬ 
ting so often that nothing can grow, will 
so far succeed in starving them out, that 
there will not be enough left to prevent 
your raising a good crop of winter wheat, 
—the season and other things being suita¬ 
ble. If I had a field that was very full of 
them I would try the buckwheat two years 
in succession. I have known this to suc¬ 
ceed admirably. J- Sirley. 
Eagle Harbor, June, 1851. 
HOW CATTLE KILL TREES. 
To Prevent Cattle Throwing Fence, 
_Such unruly cattle as are disposed to 
throw fence, may be effectually restrained 
by “ ringing” them in a manner somewhat 
as pigs are. The wires, which may be of 
common size, should be passed crosswise 
thro’ the skin of the nose just above the nos¬ 
trils. Two or three placed an inch or an inch 
and a half apart will be sufficient. The ends 
should be brought together and twisted so 
they will neither come out or get fastened 
into foreign objects. It is far preferable 
and much more effectual than a board be¬ 
fore the face, as it gives the animal no 
trouble, nor does it disfigure its appearance, 
for if neatly done, it will scarcely be ob¬ 
served except upon close inspection. 
T. E. W. 
Hilling.— The practice of hilling plants 
is fast going out of iashion. Nearly all of 
our best farmers till their corn on a level; 
and many have discontinued the practice of 
hilling potatoes. Let any one who hills 
his potatoes, examine them after a powerful 
rain has succeeded a drought, and he will 
find that while land on a level is well sat¬ 
urated with water, his potato hills are dry. 
— JV. E. Farmer. 
It is a noticeable fact that a tree ever so 
thrifty and of whatever kind to which cat¬ 
tle gain access, and under which they be¬ 
come habituated to stand, will very soon 
die. In the case of a solitary shade tree 
in a pasture, or by the road side, this is a 
common occurrence. The .query may have 
been suggested, to what is this owing ? In 
the first place, rubbing a tree by the necks 
of cattle is highly pernicious, and if per¬ 
sisted in, it will commonly destroy them 
sooner or later; but if the body of the tree 
be cased so that their necks cannot touch 
it, death will ensue just as certainly if they 
are allowed to tramp the earth about it.— 
But why should tramping the earth destroy 
the tree ? The reason is one of wide and 
important application to the laws of vege 
table growth. The roots of plants need 
air, if not as much, yet just as truly, as the 
leaves and branches. Their case is anala- 
gous to that of fishes which, though they 
must have water, must have air, also; viz. 
just about as much as permeates the wa 
ter. If it be all shut off, so that none which 
is fresh can get to them, they will exhaust 
the supply on hand, and then die for want 
of more. 
So the roots of trees and vegetables want 
air. When the earth is in a normal or nat 
ural condition it is full of interstices and 
channels by which air gets to them. But 
if the cattle are allowed to tramp down the 
earth, and the sun aids their work by ba 
king it at the same time, a crust like a brick 
is formed, wholly impervious to the atmos 
phere and the tree yields to its fate. So a 
tree cannot live if its roots are covered with 
a close pavement They will struggle for 
life by creeping to the surface and hoisting 
out a brick here and a stone there, or find 
a crack where their noses can snuff a little 
breath; but if fought down and covered 
over will finally give it up. So if a tree be 
thrust into close clay, or its roots are kept 
under water, it refuses either to be an aqua¬ 
tic or put up with its anomalous position. It 
will grow as little as possible and die the 
first opportunity.— Prairie Farmer. 
One unruly animal will learn all others 
in company bad tricks, and the Bible says 
“ One sinner destroys much good.” 
We find in the Pa. Farm Journal, a let¬ 
ter from Wm. Stayei.y, of Bucks Co., under 
the above title. Plowing down green corn 
as a manure, will be new to many of our 
readers, but it will be seen that in his case 
it was quite successful.— Eds. Rural. 
I have resided upon my farm eleven 
years. When I moved here, I found it 
in a very poor state of cultivation, although 
it had the reputation of being one of the 
host farms in the country. It had been rent¬ 
ed for more than ten years, and of course 
cultivated as most rental farms are, to get 
all that is possible to gain for the present, 
without much being done for permanent 
improvement for the future. The soil is 
mostly limestone, and the farm at present 
contains 285 acres, two hundred and forty 
of which are in grass and under cultiva¬ 
tion, and the remainder woodland and lime 
quarries. 
One of the first attempts I made at im¬ 
provement was to remove the old fencing, 
and alter the size of nearly all the fields, 
so as to be able to destroy all the noxious 
weeds and other trash that had accumla- 
ted, and were scattering their seed broad¬ 
cast over the land. I have brought into 
profitable cultivation more than twenty 
acres of valuable meadow land by ditching, 
that were of very little value before. More 
than thirty thousand bushels of lime have 
been spread upon the land in the eleven 
years it has been under my direction. In 
addition to this I have expended large sums 
for manure. But this latter planot buying 
manure I have found expensive, and I 
have been trying for two years past to find 
a substitute in part for this item. My plan 
now is, to manure all my corn ground; 
sow clover in my corn or oats field, and the 
following year make open fallow of them 
for wheat. 
In June, 1849, I plowed dow r n a light 
crop of clover in a field of eighteen acres, 
and then sowed the ground with corn, at 
the rate of two bushels to the acre. This 
I let grow until it was from six to ten feet 
high, when it was all plowed under about 
ten inches deep with a heavy team. After 
letting the ground lay until seeding time, I 
had it well harrowed, and then drilled in 
the wheat, one and a half bushels to the 
acre. I never saw larger wheat grow on 
any ground, and there were hauled at har¬ 
vest seventy-two horse rack-wagon loads of 
straw and wheat from the field. The wheat 
sowed was Mediterranean, excepting six 
acres, which was white wheat, and which 
was injured very much from the attack of 
an orange colored worm about the size of a 
grain of Timothy seed. [This must be 
the cecidomyia tntici, (an insect much like 
the Hessian fly) which infests the heads of 
w ] ]ea t.—E d.] The season, too, was rather 
wet, and the fields did not average quite 
twenty-five bushels to the acre. Adjoining 
this, 1 had a field of twenty-six acres (all 
Mediterranean) which was oat stubble, 
thoroughly manured, the yield of which 
was twenty-six bushels to the acre. The 
field in which the corn was plowed under 
had but about six loads of manure on some 
dry ridges. On the two fields, forty-four 
acres in all, I sowed Timothy in the fall and 
clover in the spring following, and now 
(April 19) the grass in the field where 
the corn was turned under is decidedly the 
best. 
In order to test again the advantage of 
plowiny down green corn, I pursued the 
same course last summer with ten acres, in 
a field of forty-one acres, for wheat ^ The 
corn was not sown until about the first ot 
July, and then did not grow well; was only 
about four feet high and not as thick on the 
ground as I wished to have it when plowed 
under. On this ten acres there was not 
put a fork full of manure, and the clover 
had been pastured down pretty close pre¬ 
viously to plowing for the corn. The re¬ 
mainder of the field was well manured. 
The ten acres of corn ground were not seed¬ 
ed until a week after the other part of the 
‘field, and now (April 19) I would rather 
take my chance with this part for a crop of 
wheat than the rest of the field. It is true 
the part manured is larger in growth, but it 
was seeded a week earlier and much of it 
is now too rank. 
There was much speculation among far¬ 
mers about the field of corn plowed under 
in 1849, many asserting that the heavy 
growth of fodder could never be got under, 
others that it would make the ground sour 
and the whole would prove a failure. But 
all was neatly accomplished, even beyond 
my most sanguine expectations. I may 
here remark, too, that a portion of the corn 
nearest my dwelling (which was the last 
turned under) was so luxuriant that I gath¬ 
ered more than a dozen ears suitable for 
boiling. 
Tiie month of June has been so unsea¬ 
sonable that one-half its work or more is 
thrown over into July. Seldom have the 
enemies of our orchards, and our fields and 
gardens had such a chance. 1 lie almost 
constant rains have forbidden, for a goud 
part of the time, either work in plowed 
ground for planting or hoeing, or even lo¬ 
comotion among fruit trees. June is the 
month the two classes of enemies named 
above, need most special attention. It is the 
month on which their chance for mischief 
mainV depends; and although it is not for 
them even to grow and get strength as 
usual while the skies do little but pour 
down water, still their’s is the advantage. 
They can stand the vicissitudes of the sea¬ 
son better than the crops at which their en¬ 
mity is leveled, and while their standing is 
secure from the attacks of their great ene¬ 
my, they farmer, the have a greatly improv¬ 
ed chance of getting their mission fulfilled. 
But in this country and climate, it we 
would not be swamped by these pests, we 
have got fighting to do. The last season 
was unparalleled for the facilities it gave to 
both. Such was the cold and backward 
state of the season till late in June that 
nothing but weeds could grow, and on lands 
which could not be tilled they did their ut¬ 
most and ripened seeds enough to supply 
“ spontaneous germination ” for a generation 
of years. And then as to insects, it was 
emphatically a year for them. Bugs, worms, 
caterpillars, and every hopping and crawl¬ 
ing species, except the seventeen year lo¬ 
custs, with a multitude unheard of before, 
were here in countless numbers. The se¬ 
vere and protracted heat of the season gave 
them time and scope for their energies, and 
they literally filled the land. Whether 
they will be here again this season is not 
yet developed. It is not uncommon that 
with a year like the last they so overdo busi¬ 
ness that they will be scarce again for a 
succession of seasons. Let us hope that so 
it will prove in the present instance. 
But if we fail in that hope there will be 
work to do unless we are to yield the ground. 
It greatly becomes our interest to under¬ 
stand the nature of insects better to enable 
us to w r ork to advantage in destroying them. 
The common caterpillar can be easily des¬ 
troyed if we know his nest and pay atten¬ 
tion to them in March, but it we let them 
alone till now they will afford us plenty of 
work. The object of this is rather to call 
attention to the subject than to offer more 
definite suggestions.— Prairie Farmer. 
A correspondent of the Keene News 
of last week brings forward a great varety 1 
of evidence to prove the efficacy and value 
oi deep plowing as a means of renovating 
Avorn out lands. This subject is an impor- j 
tant one to the farmer. The writer says: j 
“ The advantages of deep plowing are, 1 
that it makes a deep soil, which, whether ! 
rich or not, is better than a shallow one; j 
that it makes the soil better by bringing to 
the surface new earth which has not been : 
exhausted of the salts that nature placed ( 
there, and may have been enriched by those < 
which have sunk into it from manure spread 
on the surface; that it allows the roots of 
plants to penetrate deeper, and thus to with- j 
stand some severe drought; that it allows j 
water to sink deeper, by which the plants, 
in some fields in wet seasons, suffer less i 
from too much moisture; that it allows the : 
atmosphere to sink as deep as the roots go, 
and there furnish them Avith their appropri- 
ate nourishment. 
: 
But it may be objected that deep plow- ( 
ing sometimes brings up earth that is in- i 
jurious to vegetation. The answer is that ' 
though some earths may be injurious for ' 
one, perhaps for two years; yet there is 
hardly any kind of earth which will not, in ‘ 
that time, by the influence of the rain and } 
air, be deprived of its deleterious proper- ; 
ties, and made a source of fertility. 
Deep plowing is the general rule: it may < 
not be, in all cases expedient. It need < 
not be practised every year; not oftener 
perhaps, than once in four or five years. ■ 
Its beneficial effects may not be great, in < 
any one year, but it will raise the value of [ 
the land. It is said that the Pennsylvania ' 
farmers, who have emigrated to Virginia, ■ 
have, in ten or twelve years added, princi- ! 
pally by deep plowing, one third or one half 
to the market value of her Avorn out soils.” 
“THINKS I TO MYSELF.” 
CULTIVATION. 
We are indebted to a worthy and observ¬ 
ing friend for many of the following hints: 
°When I see a mass of chips accumula¬ 
ted in a farmer’s back yard, remaining year 
after year, thinks I to myself, if the coarser 
ones were raked out, they would serve for 
fuel while the finer parts with the addition 
of soap suds, &c., from the house, would af¬ 
ford a valuable source of manure. 
When I see a convex barn-yard, thinks I 
to myself, there is comparatively but little 
manure made there. 
When I see banks of manure resting 
ao-ainst a barn during the summer season, 
servin'”- only to rot the building—thinks I 
to myself, that manure might be better em¬ 
ployed. 
When I see the drainings of a barn-yard 
finding their way into gullies and rivulets, 
while, with small expense, they might be 
thrown on to a valuable swell or declivity, 
thinks I to myself, that farmer is blind to 
his own interest. 
When I see a barn-yard not well supplied 
with materials for making manure, thinks I 
to myself, that man suffers loss lor want of 
care. 
When I see a piece of hoed ground in a 
mowing field, and the turf, stalks and stones, 
that were carried out by the plow, or har¬ 
row, not collected together, thinks 1 to my¬ 
self, there is something Slovenish in the 
case. — Maine Farmer. 
There is nothing equal to stirring the 
earth where vegetables are growing. Some 
of the roots will be cut or broken by plows 
and hoes, but they soon shoot out again and 
supply all losses. 
Where corn or potatoes have been well 
planted there is but half as much labor re¬ 
quired in hoeing. ’When the rows are 
planted straight, the plow or the cultivator 
can pass close by the plants and there is 
but little left to be done by the hoe. In 
three hours a man with a horse will stir up 
an acre, passing twice between the rows; 
and an active man aviII hoe more than half 
an acre in a day. At the second hoeing lie 
will go over a whole acre; also at the third 
hoeing. 
In regard to orchards the best system 
would be to keep the ground wholly cov¬ 
ered with cheap hay or litter, for then none 
of thCTOOts would be cut with the plow or 
hoe; they would come close to the surface \ 
of the earth and would obtain from the soil . 
all the natural riches that it could yield. 
But we cannot readily find hay enough or | 
any other light matter to cover large spaces. [ 
Three or four tons would be required for a ; 
single acre. 
Therefore, if we Avould have thrifty trees 
and fair fruit we must plow and hoe, or we * 
must turn the pigs in to stir the ground and \ 
to pick up all the small apples that have 
worms in them. This will probably be the \ 
only feasible mode of destroying the cur- 7 
culio. Pigs would not only stir the ground 
and enrich it; they would destroy the canker- 1 
worm, the apple-worm and the curculio.—- 
Mass. Ploughman. 
SIBERIAN CRAB FOR HEDGES. 
THEY WERE FARMERS. 
“ Scientific Farming ” is the ascertain¬ 
ing of Avhat substances the plants you wish 
to raise are made—which of these substan¬ 
ces are xvanting in your land—and what 
manures will supply them. 
The ticking we sometimes hear in the 
wall, and which the superstitious call the 
“death watch/’ is produced by a little in¬ 
sect. 
Adam Avas a' farmer while yet in para¬ 
dise, and after his fall Avas commanded to 
earn his bread by the sweat of his brow. 
Jon, the honest, upright and patient, Avas a 
farmer, and his stern endurance has passed 
into a proverb. 
Socrates was a farmer, and so Avedded 
to his calling the glory of his immortal phi¬ 
losophy. St, Luke was a farmer, and di¬ 
vides with Prometheus the honor of sub¬ 
jecting the ox for the use of man. 
Cincinnatus was a farmer, and the no¬ 
blest Roman of them all. _ Burns was a 
farmer, and filled his soul Avith poetry. 
Washington was a farmer, and retired 
from the highest station to the quiet of 
rural life, and presented to the Avorld its 
spectacle of human greatness. 
To those names may be added a host of 
others Avho sought peace and repose in the 
cultivation of their mother earth; the en¬ 
thusiastic Lafayette, the steadfast Pick¬ 
ering the scholastic Jefferson, the fiery 
Randolph, all found in rural pursuits an 
El Dorado. 
One diseased sheep will spoil a flock. 
I saav not long ago a line of hedge which 
was made by planting the seeds of the Si¬ 
berian Crab—a small ornamental variety of 
the apple, which is well known in the nur¬ 
series, and sought after for its little fruit.— 
The tree, naturally, is a small one, and has 
not exactly thorns, but branches which be¬ 
come somewhat thorny and resisting. It 
'naturally forms a thicket Avith a .good many 
branches, so that it takes and keeps the 
hedge form very easily. He sowed the 
seeds of these crabs in the garden, and 
when the seedlings Avere a year old he 
transplanted them into the row where they 
were to grow as a hedge. They were set 
six inches apart, in a single i"oaa t , and tic 
tops were cut off Avithin three.or four inch¬ 
es of the ground, the same spring they 
were planted. They made a fine growth, 
and the next spring were again cut down 
to within six inches of the ground. I his 
made the hedge bushy and thick at the 
bottom. 
The hedge is noAv five years planted. 
It has attained its proper size, and having- 
been regularly trimmed every spring, has 
become one of the thickest and most im¬ 
penetrable hedges I have ever seen. It 
requires trimming but once a year, and 
seems to me well able to take care ol itself 
the rest of the time. Besides this, it has 
a fine appearance in the spring, when it is 
covered with blossoms, and in the autumn, 
as it begins to bear considerable fruit. 
Would not the Siberian Crab, or its seed¬ 
lings, make a good farm fence?— Horticul¬ 
turist. 
